//------------------------------// // Hell Keep // Story: Doom: Hell in Equestria // by The card holder //------------------------------// The marine did not like what he was going through right now. The moment he teleported into Hell, he was attacked by what he could only describe as a cybernetic cerberus. Chunks of flesh in its heads was missing, replaced with robotics that, naturally, shot plasma. Grimm was forced to duck and weave between the green projectiles, trying to get close enough to plant both barrels of his shotgun into the beasts' heads. Grunting in pain, he took a few shots of hot plasma to the chest, but he ignored it. Finally, he managed to get on top of the cerberus. He shot one head in the back, before doing the same to the other two. It finally fell dead, and Grimm finally got a good look around. This part of Hell seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place the reason why. He just shrugged. 'Probably tore through here before, nothing much.' Reloading his shotgun, he started yet another trek into the depths of Hell. When he was alone, he could hear some voices in his head. He ignored them completely; they were there the last couple times he went to Hell, too. He didn't mention this to the ponies for fear of sounding insane. 'Yeah, like ripping demons apart with my bare hands didn't do that already.' While he was thinking to himself, smaller demons were dispatched with barely any thought. Grimm only stopped thinking when he came across either something too big to kill mindlessly, or one of the many traps set throughout the place. He never understood why they had so many traps; what kept them from crushing the demons who called this place home? After clearing yet another room, the marine saw a key that was out of his reach on a pillar. Searching the room for a switch, he came across a grotesque sight: a pony body was hanging on the wall, its limbs stretched in opposite directions, the thick chain attached to poles on the wall. It was gutted, the entrails still hanging out. It seemed to be a unicorn at one time, but the horn was violently removed. Upon closer inspection, Grimm found something else. They were still breathing. The pony couldn't seem to say or do anything, only able to give a fearful look at the marine. On the nearby wall was a switch. Looking back at the poles, he confirmed that they were made to rotate away from the center, wrapping the chain around them. Grimm sighed; the pony was beyond help, and he knew what would happen if he hit that switch. Moments after his departure, Celestia had cast a spell that allowed them to see and hear whatever the marine saw or heard, projected so the others could see. They were a bit less shocked when they saw him slaughtering demons by the dozen, but nothing could prepare them for seeing the pony tied to the wall. Both Celestia and Luna recognized one of the royal guard when they saw them, even without their armor or most of their entrails. As Grimm looked between the switch, the pony, and the out-of-reach key, it dawned on them what would happen. Regardless, he put his hand up to the switch. They could barely hear him whisper something before hitting it. "Sorry 'bout this." They would have covered their eyes, but Grimm seemed to do it for them, looking away from the pony and focusing on the lowering key. They could still hear the ripping of flesh, though, and that may have been just as bad as seeing it. 'Got to hand it to those demons, that was kinda clever.' Grimm now had a blue skull key in his possession. He remembered seeing a blue door a few rooms back, and went to leave. On his way out, he shot one last glance at the pony, or what was left of it. Were they hoping that he wouldn't continue? He'd never mention this to the ponies, but if there was no way around it, he wouldn't mind a bit of collateral damage. Going back to the blue-outlined door, Grimm used the key. He was quite glad for the demons' need to color code everything, even if it didn't make any sense. Inside was another large room, with a lowered area full of lesser demons. Wanting to save some ammo, he took out the black syringe and injected himself with it. Putting it away, he cracked his knuckles. He knew there was a big, messy fight ahead of him, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Letting out a war cry, Grimm jumped right in. The ponies had recovered from seeing the mutilated pony just in time to watch Grimm start tearing into demons with his bare hands. Twilight and her friends had seen this already, but it wasn't any better for them. This was the princesses' first time seeing this, however, and they couldn't help but wince. Celestia couldn't believe that the same person that was doing this was the same one who lived among the ponies for a day. "Oh, man, that's gotta hurt." "Is he...? Oh no, he's not going to-" SQUELCH "He did." "Oh my... I wasn't aware spines could bend like that..." CRACK "Ah don't think they can." "I think I'm gonna be sick..." This went on for nearly ten minutes, with no two kills from the marine being exactly the same. Twilight couldn't help but notice that he was seemingly holding back earlier; with no civilians to worry about where he was, he didn't have to worry about harming anypony he didn't want to. She didn't want to, but she lingered on the thought of how easy it would have been, even without his weapons, for Grimm to simply kill everypony... The room was filled with nothing but blood, guts, and one marine. The effects of the chemical were wearing off, and he started looking around. It was hard, with the blood covering everything, but he eventually found a switch that lowered a staircase. Heading down, shotgun at the ready, he found a lone imp. He prepared to shoot, but was interrupted by the imp getting crushed by a large grill. Confused, Grimm looked up to find Discord lounging in the air. "What brings you to this corner of Hell?" the marine asked. "Quite a few reasons, really, the most pressing one to me being 'not wanting to be sealed in stone a second time.'" "Yeah, I was told about that." While Grimm moved ahead, Discord lazily kept floating near him, only moving to dodge the occasional fireball. "Something about wanting to spread chaos?" "Exactly that. Tia and them just don't understand the fun in a bit of chaos." Grimm just shrugged, shifting his focus to the hell-spawn ahead. Celestia wanted to know what Discord was planning. He wouldn't do this if it didn't benefit him in the long run, and it most likely had something to do with Grimm. Still, the most she could do right now was wait and watch. She'd figure out what to do eventually. Grimm could tell that they were close. Close to what, he didn't know; he just knew it was something big. The ground steadily got hotter under his feet, and demons were becoming fewer in number. Even Discord had stopped talking, also sensing the upcoming danger. The pair approached a large door, which had the image of a demonic skull on it. Readying himself, Grimm opened the door. Behind it was a wide open area, half of which was filled with lava. He started moving forward, but stopped as the ground started shaking. The lava began to ripple, and a huge demon, bigger than even the demon that masterminded the Earth invasion, rose up. It was covered in spikes and scars, and its horns glinted menacingly. Like the one in charge of the previous invasion, it spoke: "ʇsnɐɟ uǝɹnɐl ǝɯ llıʞ ʇsnɯ noʎ ʎɹoʇs ǝɥʇ puǝ oʇ"